After Nu's apparent death, Kokonoe has Tager salvage the 11th Murakumo Unit from Ikaruga, and then plucks Nu's soul from the Boundary, erases her memories, and implants her within her predecessor's body. She is now completely subservient to Kokonoe and is used as another tool in her plan to get revenge on Terumi. As she inhabits the body of her predecessor, she is not the juggernaut she was before. This is manifested gameplay-wise in the form of loads of balance changes.

And I Must Scream: Poor, poor Lambda... The original one, that is. We see what her life was like before she died, and it makes her younger sisters look positively blessed by comparison.

It doesn't get much better after Kokonoe revives her. Lambda's worst fear- and primary source of trauma- was being treated like a doll instead of an actual being that could think and feel. This is exactly what Kokonoe does to her, effectively mercy-killing the last remnants of Lambda by erasing her memories, and Lambda aware but unable to say or do anything to prevent it.

Darkskinned Blonde: Not very dark but her chibi-fied self appearing in her "Help me, Professor Kokonoe"-segment has noticable darker skin than the other characters. Her portrait and game sprites have bright skin though.

Downer Ending: Her joke ending, which ends with the pet insect she adopted being thrown in the trash by an unknowing Kokonoe. Possibly the only depressing Gag Reel in the game.

Empty Shell: Kokonoe calls her as such in her story mode. But is she really...?

Gratuitous German: When you're comboing with her swords, she counts the hits in German for no apparent reason.

"Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier, Fünf, Sechs, Sieben,..."

Heroic Sacrifice: At the very end Nu's soul resurfaces, she regains her memories, and takes not one, but two killing blows from Terumi's Ouroboros to the back that were meant for Ragna. She then gives Ragna the power from her Idea Engine to unlock his Azure Grimoire allowing him to defeat Terumi and turn Mu back into Noel shortly after. Parts from Lambda's regeneration chamber are later used to make Ragna's new left arm.

Yank the Dog's Chain: Lambda's "bad" ending after losing a Battle in the Center of the Mind leaves her alone in a hallucinated space. Suddenly, an image of Ragna appears, tells her she did well and Kokonoe is proud of her, and they can both rest now. Lambda is overjoyed to see him, and happily lies down to take a nap with her beloved Ragna. When Kokonoe re-establishes contact with her body, Lambda is lying in a garden staring up at the sky, her mind shattered... but a smile on her face.

Her joke ending also has her clumsily become friends with Makoto and explore a few minute facets of individuality... it lasts up until Kokonoe drops Lambda's pet insect down the waste disposal by accident.

Younger Than They Look: As with the other Murakumos, she's much younger than she looks, with her current body being, at most, seven years old.

A fellow classmate of Jin, Noel, and Makoto from the Academy. Tsubaki comes from the noble Yayoi family. She's also Jin's childhood friend and has harboured a secret crush on him since they were young. After graduation, she served under the Zero Squadron/Wings of Justice, whose duty is to punish those who rebel against NOL. After the True Ending of the first game she was given orders by Hazama to execute Jin and Noel for knowing about his plans. And so she is sent out to Kagutsuchi to accomplish her mission, armed with an Armagus called Izayoi which controls light. Her Drive, Install, fills a meter that increases the power of her attacks. Her Astral Finish turns her into an angel as a statue of a goddess (the same one seen in the background of Jin's stage) stabs you with a spear.

Shared with Jin, Hazama and Noel, and probably with the rest of their division.

"Dispatched in mankind's darkest hour, we are Knights of the Blue Flame!"

These are of her own:

"In my right hand, I carry the sword of judgment, and in my left, the scales of justice. I serve the wings who govern the heavens. I am their word and their sword made flesh."

(While doing her Astral Heat) "White feathers for innocence...black feathers for darkest sin. We are the messengers and hammers of God, come to deliver righteous justice! Let sinners be punished... let justice be done!"

Blessed with Suck / Deadly Upgrade: In her story mode, using a Distortion or Astral Drive leads to her bad ending because her Armagus "Izayoi" draws energy from her life, and the Drives speed up the process.

Brainwashed and Crazy: Tsubaki hesitates to fight Jin and tries to spare her friends even after Terumi tells her about how Noel replaced her. Then Terumi's failsafe kicks in, and Tsubaki switches into a haughty, ultra-lawful persona.

Fan Girl: CS reveals that she's a huge fangirl of the Six Heroes, owns all the books and movies about them and that Hakumen is her hero.

Green-Eyed Monster: A possibility; Hazama explains that Noel's existence in the canon timeline (she was apparently not born in any other timeline) has essentially replaced Tsubaki's "intended" position; Noel became Jin's "secretary" instead of her despite inferior qualifications in every respect, meaning Tsubaki fades into obscurity, is denied the man she loves, and cannot prevent his mad pursuit of Ragna.

Noel's short story from one of the materials collections reveals that she specifically sought to avoid military work, but the intelligence department posted her under Jin against her will, implicitly using the fate of the Vermillions to force her into it. Effectively, when Hazama asks whose fault the screwing over of Tsubaki is, he's refusing to give the answer himself because it's probably his own - and he may well have set it all up to have Tsubaki for use as a pawn against Hakumen. And it gets even worse. In said timeline, Jin casts off Tsubaki to continue his pursuit of Ragna the Bloodedge, leaving her to receive a "special visit" from Terumi. During the ensuing conflict between Jin and Ragna, Tsubaki shows up to try to help Jin only for Nu to pick that moment to arrive, assume Ragna is "cheating" on her with Tsubaki, and Legacy Edge her dead. So for all the crap that Tsubaki gives Noel for "stealing" Jin away from her, the ultimate irony is that Noel, by taking the job under Jin, actually saved her life.

Heroic Sacrifice: In Hakumen's backstory, as expanded in the drama CD "The Wheel of Fortune", she died taking Nu's stabs meant for Jin.

Incest Is Relative: Members of the Yayoi family breed with strong users of Ars Magus to keep their family strong. When there became a shortage of such people, they resorted to inbreeding which, over time, served to weaken the family. Tsubaki, it turns out, is not the first daughter of her parents; she's the first one to survive.

Invocation: During her Astral Finish: "White feathers for innocence, black feathers for darkest sin. We are the messengers and hammers of God, come to deliver righteous justice! Let sinners be punished! Let justice be done!"

Love Makes You Evil: Mostly, the reason she stayed with the NOL is because of her jealousy. This fits her current situation quite well.

Meaningful Name: Tsubaki means "Camellia" in Japanese. Hakumen named his special move "Camellia" after her. Moreover, Tsubaki's surname and weapon name refer to the moon, hinting at her ability to block out light.

Miss Imagination: One of the drama tracks is dedicated to her rather...warped daydreams, which misinterprets the other characters to a glorious extent.

Shipper on Deck: In Bang's gag ending, Tsubaki sees Bang peeking into Litchi's window in Orient Town, and assumes he is a peeping tom. As she's about to arrest him, Bang avoids being arrested by telling Tsubaki that Litchi is his girlfriend. Tsubaki believes him, and gets the idea that he's going to propose marriage. Upon coming to this conclusion, she gleefully insists that Bang propose to Litchi right that instant. Bang is less than pleased, given Tsubaki's...forcefulness.

SNK Boss: All unlimited characters have some level of this, but Tsubaki's appearance at the end of Jin's CS story deserves special mention for forcing the player to fight with only half a moveset.

Unwitting Pawn: She's used as a pawn by Hazama many, many times over. As of now, he's used her to obstruct Takagamagara's surveilance by using Izayoi, capture Noel OR die fighting, allowing Hazama to snatch her during the distraction, follow the NOL's orders blindly by feeding her half truths (and inferred Mind Control when that didn't look like it was going to work), all the while using her as a giant "screw you" to Hakumen, who was Jin Kisaragi in a previous timeline and still holds some feelings for her after witnessing his Tsubaki die.

Whip Sword: One of her normal attacks turns her dagger into one that looks extremely similar to Ivy's.

Wrong Genre Savvy: Played for Laughs, many a Gag Reel where she shows up has her giving into her fetish for romantic heroic stories. She starts calling out how a character normally would or should act in such a situation, completely unaware that they don't work that way in real life.

Yandere: Towards Jin. and she easily lost it after being lead to the belief that he has been stolen from her.

"Now...Murakumo, activate! This whole world is nothing but lies! LIES! Lemme show you what I like to call the truth! The truth called 'DESPAIR!' In the name of Susano'o, I command you! Murakumo, AWAKEN! Behold the sword of the god-slayer, KUSANAGI! Let all lies fall before your divine blade!"

Hazama is a Captain within the NOL's Intelligence Department. He claims to dislike physical labor and appears to be quite personable at first, but his true motives are veiled behind his false, foxy smile. Throughout the story of Calamity Trigger he appears to assist Noel, and appears in a few other characters' stories as well, for seemingly no reason...until the True Ending where all is revealed.

In reality, he is actually Yuuki Terumi, one of the Six Heroes who defeated the Black Beast 90 years prior to the game's story, the Final Boss of Continuum Shift, and one of the masterminds behind every single event that happens in the story thus far. In Calamity Trigger's true ending he drops his amiable personality and reveals himself to be the exact opposite: a Complete Monster who delights in the suffering and pain of others. Terumi's true form is actually that of a ghost, due to injuries sustained from fighting the Beast. While his body was being repaired by Relius, he inhabited the Susano'o unit briefly (before Hakumen), and later rejoined with his body (which gained a mind of its own and became known as Kazuma Kval), in the process killing Jubei's brother. He was sealed by the great magister Nine, but due to the beast's reappearance was unsealed and Brainwashed by Nine to do her bidding. Unbeknownst to anyone, Terumi broke free of Nine's control and killed her once the war had ended. He then went after Hakumen and Jubei, but was tricked by Jubei and incarcerated as a prisoner of the omniscient supercomputer Takamagahara. That failed. After Terumi escaped, he cut off Ragna's arm and absconded with his sister Saya to use as the template for the Murakumo Units. He now seeks to revert Noel back into her original Murakumo unit form and use her to destroy the Amaterasu unit, stating that the world is nothing but lies and vowing to plunge it into eternal despair. He uses knives as his specialty weapons. His Nox Nyctores/Drive is Geminus Anguium: Ouroboros, which allows him to summon chains that hang in the air and can be used to swing him back and forth or attack his opponents. His Astral Finish summons a bunch of chains from the ground, which form into a really big and long snake that eats you.

Animal Motifs: All of his Drives have snake names, he enjoys boiled eggs, and he despises cats. It's pretty obvious. Although he actually has the strength to back up his boasts, so he's not actually a Smug Snake.

Bad Samaritan: He was actually refused by Litchi on the first attempt to had her join NOL... until he says "We can save Arakune!" Just the thing she wanted. However, we do not know yet to what extent Hazama plans to screw that deal off, though it's quite inevitable.

(Rachel rescues Makoto): "Damn vampire! You LIVE to cockblock me, don't you?! Well, UNlive... you know what I meant... Killjoys, the both of ya. Guess I'm gonna watch some humans get skewered... eh, Tsubaki?"

The deeper you dig into his Evil Plan, the more extreme the measures he will take to see you DEAD. Suffice it to say he hasn't forgiven Makoto for her handiwork.

Big Bad Duumvirate: There were doubts at one point, but it's been confirmed; Terumi and Relius have been orchestrating everything since before the Dark War, though Terumi's more hands-on by comparison.

Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Pretends to be a harmless and polite NOL officer to save face in public, but by Continuum Shift you can tell he's letting some things slip on purpose.

Break the Cutie: By far his greatest asset. No one is safe from his enormous mental penis. He will troll women and even children for his own pleasure and purposes. The only time someone survived his Mind Rape was Makoto, and even then, Relius broke her pretty easily.

Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments. In particular, while Jin, Noel, and Tsubaki resolutely state the NOL's Badass Creed, Hazama snarks his way through it.

Devil in Plain Sight: Subverted, as very few of the characters trust him, or think that he's up to any sort of good. Those who don't even know who he is get uneasy just being around him.

In The Wheel of Fortune, Makoto is able to tell from the first time she meets him that he's a bastard, that his polite attitude is his way of mocking people, and that "his smile is a lie". Too bad Tsubaki didn't catch this. It would have saved Jin and Noel a metric ton of trouble if she had seen Hazama beyond the lies and the occasional half-truth.

In Slight Hope, a flashback shows Makoto didn't need to wait that long to find him fishy.

"There's just one downer. There's this guy I'm gonna be working under, Hazama. I got a hunch I'm not gonna be too crazy about him."

Louis Cypher: The pseudonym "Hazama" roughly translates to "otherworldly". Add in his snake motif and his shady but gentlemanly style and voila.

Managing his chains and short ranged knives can be difficult at first, but he becomes very powerful when one gets used to his unusual control scheme and playstyle. Not to mention several of his bread'n'butter combos are usually chock-full of Some Dexterity Required.

Continuum Shift 2 takes this to ridiculous levels. His old bread 'n' butter combos are gone, and the majority of his new ones require canceling his C moves from his odd, sliding dash.

It gets even better with Continuum Shift Extend. Even more of his combos no longer work, and the ones that still do deal much less damage in comparison. The CPU doesn't really abide by this, making him the ideal boss character.

Does This Remind You of Anything?: A lot of his poses and positioning of his snake-like projectiles. Special mention goes to Phase Shift 1, where he merges back with his body, then known as Kazuma. The amount of innuendo in this scene is egregious. The euphemism "come" is used several times too much.

Evil Genius: Yes, he's crazy, but he's also well-versed in alchemy (he created the Azure Grimoire, after all), and most of all; a tactical genius, which is what REALLY makes him as dangerous as he is. He even managed to outsmart an omnipotent supercomputer with three minds. No one manages to outsmart him, while he manages to make fools out of the entire cast.

Evil Laugh: Usually the signal that he's about to troll you into oblivion, or reveal himself (punctuated by his portrait changing into the 2nd picture shown below[1], or his Ouroboros snakes creating an aura around him, blowing away his hat and tie and spiking his hair up Super Saiyan-style in Story Mode).

Fantastic Racism: Really hates that "shitty vampire" Rachel. And those goddamncats Jubei and Taokaka. He also pokes fun at Makoto for being a Beastkin, but this is for an entirely different, more informative, reason. He doesn't hate them all per se, just those of the cat genus because he's allergic to them.

Game Over Man: Carl is out of his league, Valkenhayn only gets off with his life - and barely at that - thanks to Phantom's intervention, and Platinum gets used as Human Resources. The three of them should give the Troll a wide berth.

Gameplay and Story Segregation: He's heavily implied to be the most powerful character by a ridiculous margin, even causing Rachel to lose her haughtiness and composure when he's around. You may have just killed him with an Astral during the match, but afterward your character is tired and trying to catch their breath while Hazama just got a nice warm-up exercise. The only exceptions are Jin, where in his story mode after fighting Jin (win or lose) he is impressed by the "power of order" and retreats, and the true ending, after Ragna receives Lambda's Idea Engine and proceeds to beat the crap out of Hazama.

Gods Need Prayer Badly: Interesting take on this. The main reason Terumi so thoroughly traumatised Ragna as a child is because he's essentially a ghost whose existence in the world isn't "fixed". Terumi needs people to acknowledge and recognise his existence in order to continue to exist. Ironically, the more that Ragna fixates on and hates Terumi, the stronger Terumi becomes. This problem is resolved at the end of Continuum Shift when Saya becomes the "Observer" of Terumi, essentially making her his anchor in the world.

He appears in Teach Me Ms. Litchi Reloaded episode 3, alongside Jin and Noel to teach Taokaka about their organization. And no, he doesn't try to kill everyone or anyone; he teaches and trolls.

He, like everyone else, appears in the Gag Reels of characters. This includes his own, Noel(and being one of three survivors)'s, and Ragna's.

And, while more on the side of "evil", he has a bad ending and thus has a meeting with Kokonoe.

Grand Theft Me: He has possesed other people to do his dastardly deeds through them.

Phase Shift 1 reveals that this is actually a VERY literal case. Every time loop he loses his body and must "repossess" it due to extensive damage against the Black Beast. His current body, "Hazama", was separated from him and ended up having a mind of its own. It was placed under Relius' care under the name of "Kazuma Kuvaru".

Hypocrite: As much as he claims to hate lies and that the world is nothing but lies, if it keeps his plans from being compromised, he will lie his ass off.

It's All About Me: It's all about his enjoyment and what he sees as truth in the world: Despair, and the rest are lies. If other people dares think otherwise (which is... probably everyone), he'll damn make sure it's shoved into everyone else's asses until it's accepted.

Laughably Evil: Yes, he's a horrible, horrible human being (even though he's not actually human at this point). That said, just about every line he speaks is freaking gold. Especially since he has a much more crass, jovial, and vulgar personality than most evil masterminds. It's hard not to crack up at some of the things he says to people, particularly preceding the boss fight with him in Continuum Shift. Couple that with his sheer sense of style, and you've got a complete bastard almost forcing you to love him. This treatment has been a little unwelcomed as of late, as people just find his "Evil" part completely eclipsing the "Laughably" part.

Literal Split Personality: Phase Shift 1 reveals that after fighting the Black Beast, he loses his body and has Relius care for it. The body without Terumi inside it goes by the name Kazuma Kuvaru and studies under Relius, being everything Hazama isn't - namely shy and afraid of confrontation. He eventually merges back with Terumi and then becomes Hazama.

Man Behind the Man: He and Relius are basically behind everything.; it's not even worth putting a spoiler on. Even the Imperator, who was abducted as a child by Terumi, and used by him and Relius as a "vessel."

Manipulative Bastard: His method of coaxing Litchi to join NOL is to inform her that he knows a lot about Arakune, and the events surrounding him, then time it with the fact that Kokonoe is too busy hunting his ass to even help Litchi and her Boundary corruption is getting worse, prompting her to get desperate and join it. If that doesn't seem manipulative, remember that Litchi's corruption start acting up when she gets near the Azure Grimoire. Terumi wields the real one, thus it can be concluded that Terumi purposely gets near her to have her corruption act up, putting her into desperation, and eventually joined NOL for the cure.

Even moreso, his half-truth he feeds to Tsubaki, which drives her into wanting to kill Noel, her best friend. What he says afterwards just tacks on more total bastard points.

Mind Rape: According to Word of God, this is the side effect of being hit with Ouroboros. It also happens to be a hobby of his, and he admits it. Hell, he'll do it to people for no reason other than he feels like it at the time. Just ask Tager.

Nietzsche Wannabe: Claims that the world is a lie and that he will show it the truth of "despair". He thinks that has a nice ring to it.

Nightmare Fetishist: In Noel's Gag Reel in Continuum Shift, while everyone else is knocked out cold by her spiced puffer fish, he manages to keep eating. Not only that, he loves it.

Obviously Evil: Less so in Calamity Trigger due to his limited amount of screen time. In Continuum Shift it's clear that Hazama isn't even trying to hide his evil intentions anymore.

Off-Model: Not only is his spiked-up hair disproportionate to the official artwork, his face is also a bit... off.

Oh Crap: He gets at least one moment like this near the end of his gag ending when Taokaka, Jubei, Kokonoe, and every single other Kaka and cat in Kagutsuchi start chasing after him in something similar to, like, a game of tag.

He didn't even know that he put on too much catnip while taking his bath, hence why the mating/courtship behavior in the feline characters around him was uncontrollable.

Older Than They Look: According to Phase 0, it's been well over 100 years. Also Hakumen's victory quote against him in Arcade mode indicates he has existed for quite a while. The quote can even be interpreted as saying Terumi has existed since the dawn of time. Unlikely, yes, but he has been around.

"The Reason You Suck" Speech: A favorite subject for his Hannibal Lectures, these invariably go on for several text boxes. His skill at utterly annihilating people verbally is likely one of the biggest reasons Terumi’s so popular with players.

Red Oni, Blue Oni: The evil version of course. He can be considered the red oni to Relius's blue oni.

Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Not only has he apparently retained his memories from each and every time loop, but it's heavily implied to be the cause of his insanity; he's been living through time loops longer than anyone (even Rachel), and after the millionth or so loop, he couldn't take it anymore and set out to end the loops and let the world die for good.

Smug Snake: In almost every sense of the word. However, unlike the standard definition of this trope would imply, he's actually a successful villain.

SNK Boss: He makes v-13 look like a chump (no small feat). He is incredibly fast when fought as a boss, and his super meter and drive meter have auto-gain properties. Oh, and he can also drain your health if he gets close to you or attacks you. Not to mention a brutal sky-high kick Distortion Drive that knocks off a third of your life...which he uses with wild abandon. Not to mention this kick is so insanely fast the computer can and will counter anything and everything you throw at it with it.

Spoiler Opening: Even before the big reveal at the end of Calamity Trigger's true ending, that close up of him in that game's opening made it clear that he would end up being a major player in the game's plot.

Synchronization: He has a "life-link" with Noel where, if he dies, Noel will to. Apparently broken when Noel lost the powers of the "Eye". He also has a life-link with Saya, the Imperator, in order to maintain his existance after the Takamagahara, which brought him into the world from his prison in the Boundary, was destroyed.

Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Despite the fact that he's technically a part of the NOL (as Hazama), he doesn't seem to like working with them. Likely due to the fact that Phantom and Relius often show up to remind him of the important work that needs to be done while he's in the middle of tormenting people. Coupled with that, when the Imperator gives him orders, he flat-out ignores them, and even will yell at her ("don't "cease" me!").

Phase 0 reveals that he used to work with Nine's father, Shuuichiro Ayatsuki, in their shared goal of destroying Amaterasu. Shuuichiro felt very much this way toward Terumi, being very worried by him.

It later becomes apparent, through both Phase 0 and The Wheel of Fortune, that the teeth clenching toward Relius is something of a put-on. The two work very well together behind the scenes, apparently being such evil bastards that it actually helps them get along.

Relius' Arcade ending confirms that they are both quite cooperative. Terumi had planned for his physical body to die at Relius' hand, at the exact moment Takamagahara was vulnerable. This also makes Relius' Arcade ending the only canon Arcade mode ending besides Noel and Ragna / Hazama's endings. In fact, much of the additional content in Extend reveals that the two of them are practically villainous best buddies. Even when fighting each other, their in-fight dialogue indicates that neither of them want to fight the other, and find the match pointless.

Hazama: This is dumb, can we stop?

Theme Naming: Most of the names of his special moves not counting his Astral Finish usually have something to do with snakes, or venom. Some examples include: Venom Sword, Wind Serpent's Fang, Serpent's Benediction, and of course, Serpent's Infernal Rapture.

The Other Darrin and More: And boy is this confusing. When CS first came out, everyone wrote that it was Doug that did Hazama's voice. When the portable CS game came out, they got Spike to do his voice because apparently Doug was out shopping. But when CS:EX came out, then we were told that now Erik would be doing all the lines in the new cutscenes. But now it's put that Erik started and Doug's doing Extend.

Irony is that this pretty much trolls fans, or someone was really stupid.

Troll: By far the greatest example ever. Terumi is such a troll that he has been officially christened the god of Trolling. Since he is sustained by people hating him, trolling people is actually a survival tactic for Terumi.

From a Certain Point of View: "Forgetting" to include parts of the truth that doesn't suit his purpuses, however, is still technically not a lie. He basically told Tsubaki that she was better off dead because she's useless garbage in his eyes.

Villain Protagonist: He's this during his story mode (seeing as though you play as him), just like Relius.

Weaksauce Weakness: His joke ending reduces him to a sneezing, suffering plaything for the Kaka cats, due to his allergies. They're not significant enough to paralyze him against Tao alone, but prolonged exposure to her, two Kaka kittens, Jubei, and Kokonoe all at once leave him a wreck. That's what he gets for bathing in catnip.

Gambit Index: Practically all the major stuff on that list applies to Terumi in spades.

Gambit Roulette: It seems like he's playing this game, as his plans come together a little too perfectly and rely on the independant actions of over fifteen people. Massively subverted. Thanks to the magic of Phantom, he's been able to observe every single possibility of every single timeline of the Continuum Shift. The reason he always seems to know what will happen is because he does.

Thanatos Gambit: How he got inside Takamagahara to deliver Phantom's virus. He had Relius kill his weakened physical body, which had already been life-linked to Noel (as Mu), meaning his body would just repair itself while he was off killing Takamagahara.

Xanatos Gambit: After Ragna powers up the Azure Grimoire. 1) He either loses to Ragna, knowing that Ragna won't kill him due to the life-link he has with Noel. Ragna then proceeds to save Noel which diverts the Observers' attention for a brief instant, allowing Terumi to kill them all. 2) He kills Ragna, getting rid of an annoying pest, and keeping Mu-12 as a minion. Either way, Terumi wins.

Xanatos Speed Chess: Makoto's friendship with Noel and Tsubaki was a potential boobytrap that could have violently imploded his plans for the two of them. To make certain she's out of the way, he patches a request to her indirectly (she doesn't trust him - see Devil in Plain Sight above) to get her as far away from Kagutsuchi as possible, and when she does come back midway through his plot, the first thing he tries to do when he catches her chatting with Jin is attempt to kill her. Key word being "try" - the attack is parried.

You're Insane!: Oddly enough, he asks Jubei if he's completely insane in his gag ending when Jubei says he just wants to smell him until he's completely satisfied. And what makes it played for even more laughs is when he asks why they can't just fight or something and can't even finish saying that he thought he hated him because Jubei's too busy smelling him. He's not too happy about that. "Can't you wait until I'm finished TALKING?!"

This is the form that Noel takes after being converted to her original Murakumo Unit form. She is being mind-controlled by Terumi and her hatred for the world has now been dialed Up to Eleven. Seeing as how she is the True Final Boss of Story Mode, she is a secret character who can be unlocked by beating the True Ending or by downloading her via the Play Station Network Store or Xbox Live Marketplace. Her Drive, Steins Gunner, allows her to create small orbs of energy that can be used to fire lasers everywhere. Her Astral Finish traps the opponent in a crystal as she conjures up her sword, Kusanagi, which is engulfed in flames. She then slices the crystal prison in half, with the opponent still inside.

Glass Cannon: Her regular, non-Unlimited version has very little health in keeping with the other Murakumo Units.

Invocation: Her Astral Finish. "The seven celestial gods! The world created by the hands of the gods. Everything is false! Everything is a lie! The final days have come! Now, let everything be destroyed!"

Bonus Boss: If you do not continue and get at least 3 Astral Finishes throughout Continuum Shift II, a special cutscene occurs where Terumi decides you're worth being a test subject for her battle capabilities. This starts out cool and all, but then you notice that her name is glowing pink.

SNK Boss: The glowing pink name means she's in her Unlimited mode, which is ten times more broken than Hazama's, and 20 times as frustrating as Calamity Trigger's Unlimited Ragna. And good luck beating her at Level 999 Abyss...

Robo Speak: Mu's post-battle quotes are conduced in this manner, noting how the enemy is incapable of posing her a further threat. One quote, however, is noteworthy.

"Target's resistance to seithr exceeds established parameters... Executing research protocols..."

Shoulders of Doom: Appropriately enough, and thankfully so, too, else even less of what she's wearing would count as "clothes".

A fellow classmate of Noel, Jin and Tsubaki from the Academy. She entered the Academy for the financial benefit NOL provided to her family. She's a Squirrel Beastkin, giving her incredible physical strength and reflexes. Unfortunately, because of her squirrel-ness she was the victim of extreme Fantastic Racism from many others, including her classmates. Noel and Tsubaki protected her from them, and became fast friends. Responds with great Squee to anything cute, including Taokaka and Noel in one of the "Teach Me, Miss Litchi!" skits, and Carl in a flashback in Noel's story mode. She ends up in the Intelligence Department of the NOL (the same division as Hazama).

Ass Kicks You: Her reverse throw knocks her opponents flat on their backs, followed by her jumping on and landing butt-first on them. Also similar looking is one of her jumping 2C attacks (though her tail covers her butt when she does this).

Beware the Nice Ones: Really fun to be around, but harm any of her friends and...BANG! ZOOM! Straight to the moon.

Good Is Not Soft: And if you happen to be Hazama (who she already distrusts), even that provocation isn't necessary, not that it stops him.

Big Eater / Hyperactive Metabolism: She did that prior to her appearance in the first "Teach Me Miss Litchi" episode (and climbed a tree just to burn it all out!). Also, one of her victory speeches hints at it:

Break the Cutie: Our biggest hint as to how deep this rabbit hole goes? Relius' Mind Rape of Makoto in her notorious Bad Ending - said childhood has to be particularly brutal if being forced to relive it in mere minutes shatters an otherwise Plucky Girl.

Distracted by the Sexy: She gets some nice portrait cut-ins during her Distortion Drives, enough to distract you from remembering they have the same charging properties as her drives and therefore resulting in pitiful damage.

Dual Tonfas: Her Weapon of Choice. Subverted in that she rarely uses them as such. Her actual fighting style is more along the lines of boxing and the tonfas seem to simply add a little extra punch to her attacks.

Squirrel Out of Continual Water: In Slight Hope[3] she winds up falling into the Wheel of Fortune timeline (around the time Calamity Trigger occurs in the active timeline) due to a trip into the Cauldron, where she wasn't tangled up in the events of the story otherwise - Hazama refers to her as an "anomaly" as a result, whereas Tager rejects the password she gives him. Rachel finds her before long and returns her to the active timeline.

Flung Clothing: Like Noel, she throws off her jacket when entering a battle.

Genius Ditz: She's very competent at her job as an intelligence operative for the NOL, as a Reverse Mole for Sector Seven and is shown to be capable of fooling Hazama, but there are times where you wonder how the hell someone as Book Dumb as her managed to even get into the military academy.

Hazel Eyes: Same as Bang, except replace "Nox Nyctores" with "bestial nature". Valkenhayn is aware of this, if his Arcade commentary is anything to go by.

Les Yay: Mild case. She's extremely protective of Noel, and this has not gone unnoticed by the fandom. Carl's gag reel in CS show her groping Tsubaki's breasts at one point. Possibly just having fun as she often does though.

Lightning Bruiser: Good defense stats, mobility, and offensive power, but tempered by short range.

Little Bit Beastly: She's a Squirrel Beastkin - A half-human hybrid with the ears and tail of a squirrel.

Mind Rape: Suffers from a nasty case of this in her Bad Ending, courtesy of everyone's favourite masked freak Relius.

Ms. Fanservice: Her outfit and overall appearance has been well received by many fans. Shortly after her announcement as a DLC character, and a full image of her outfit, fan arts almost immediately sprouted.

During one of her appearances in Story Mode, she makes a crater upon punching the ground. That scene further points out how strong Makoto is by having her effortlessly grab an unconscious Tsubaki and run off with her like she were a rag doll.

In gameplay, her Impact drive knocks people in every direction based on the move and the power stored, with level 3 blows having the most blowback and demolishing Guard Primers on every blow. Nevermind her Astral Heat, which is such a vulgar display of physical power that would probably make Tager jealous.

Norse Mythology: Her magical crest is a tree with an eagle at the top, and she's a squirrel-girl who worked for the Intelligence division under a guy with a serpent-theme, who turns out to be her enemy. In Norse Mythology, there was a squirrel who raced up and down the World Tree, listening to words of the eagle at the top and then using that knowledge to mock and taunt the serpent that chewed on one of the great tree's roots.

Obfuscating Stupidity: She's quite goofy and carefree, but it's worth remembering that she attended the Academy on a scholarship, graduated into the NOL's Intelligence Division and becomes very serious whenever one of her friends is threatened. On top of that, she's a Double Agent working for Sector Seven and easily discovered the hidden cache of rejected Saya clones in Ikaruga.

Only Sane Squirrel: She's a Book DumbGenius Ditz who tends to think with her heart rather than her head, but she falls into this surprisingly often. This is particularly apparent for her joke ending, many parts of the main story, and the first episode of Teach Me, Miss Litchi: Reloaded!. Then again, there are a fewoccasions that show she's not so above it all.

The Power of Friendship: Her primary motivation in Continuum Shift seems to be the safety of Noel and Tsubaki. Especially after she discovers a hidden cache of rejected Saya clones in Ikaruga.

Precision F-Strike: Compared to the triumvirate of Hazama, Ragna, and Kokonoe, Makoto's reasonably clean of tongue, but there are times she's not so clean. Take the time when Hazama decided to take the role of Makoto's mother, or whenever she's fighting him or Relius.

Shipper on Deck: A Jin X Tsubaki Fangirl, based on one of her lines in Continuum Shift:

"They would really make such a nice couple."

Taken up another notch in Slight Hope - Makoto doesn't try to hide that she ships them.

Makoto: "Tsubaki, this is ME you're talking to! Drop the good little cadet schtick and just say it! 'I'm gonna spend every day with Jin, and I couldn't be happier about it! Tra, la la, la la!'"

Tsubaki: "I... what...? Why would I say that?"

Makoto: "Somebody's blushing! *giggle* Geez, I can read you like a book when it comes to that boy."

Ship Tease: with Jin. He is rather caring towards her, almost to the point of his level of caring towards Tsubaki.

Jin: Lieutenant... Are you alright?

Makoto: Y-yes! Thank you so much for saving me...!

Jin: Your safety is all that... m-matters... ugh...

Despite shipping him with Tsubaki, she does reciprocate these feelings - her first thought upon meeting him is to help him to a medical ward, and she thinks nothing of parrying a hit from Hazama and fighting him in Jin's stead.

Spanner in the Works: Not only Hazama's initial plot to Mind Rape Tsubaki, but his backup plan of baiting Relius Clover with Jin to throw her off the scent have gone, according to him, "fair-to-middling FUBAR" just thanks to not predicting Makoto correctly. No wonder he wants her dead so badly.

Tomato in the Mirror:Hazama implies in Friendship[4] that "you were created for the purpose of defeating the Black Beast" - "you" referring to beastkin in general in all likelihood.Rachel talked her through the whole "crafted by human hands" business at the end of Slight Hope, so this had less of a sting than what Hazama was expecting.

Underboobs: One of her two defining features. The other being her squirrel tail.

Undying Loyalty: Makoto would go to the ends of the earth for Noel and Tsubaki. She betrays the NOL, an organisation that basically rules most of the world and sends a thinly veiled threat to Sector Seven, the organisation that runs the rest of it. Her loyalty is so strong, that, in her Story Mode, it's implied that her loyalty to her friends actually stopped her from losing her sanity and semblance of self when she fell into the cauldron, through the Boundary, and into to a different timeline, and then let her go back to her original timeline. To help that sink in, Arakune turned into a... whatever he is now after being exposed to the Boundary for a few moments, and only Hakumen has travelled timelines without any negative change to himself.

Gameplay-wise, she was a high Tier-Induced Scrappy due to her insane damage output and perks, thus requiring less skill than usual to handle in gameplay. Subverted after taking a hard hit from the nerf bat in Extend.

Story-wise, in Heart to Heart, Jin reviews her records with Tsubaki when he justifies the student council's decision to suspend her after that one round with the bullies. In his words, her Ars Magus aptitude (one of the big priorities for enrolling at the Academy) is average, but her physical tests are off the charts.

Yank the Dog's Chain: Prior to Extend, anyone who ran into Relius Clover in their story mode was on a one-way trip to the bad ending. There is an option for Makoto to give the old college try of smashing in his smug prick face; players who attempt this are "rewarded" with a free tripto Kokonoe's therapy room.

A former member of the Six Heroes, Valkenhayn has been a faithful ally of the Alucard family for hundreds of years, and serves Rachel's every whim as her Battle Butler. Behind his elderly, seemingly withered form lies a secret: he is actually a werewolf. Like Makoto, he is a beastkin, but of the lupine lineage, and in his youth he used to be a vigilante before becoming acquainted with Rachel's father Clavis. When Clavis died, Valkenhayn promised his friend that he would look after Rachel in his stead. Thus, when Rachel turns up missing in Kagutsuchi, he heads out to find her. His Drive, Werewolf (that's pronounced "vair-volf", folks), allows him to transform into a wolf for a limited time, which is determined by a gauge. His Astral Finish has him performing a Flash Kick that knocks the opponent high into the air. He then transforms into a full werewolf form while the opponent still floats in the air with the moon in the background and performs several cross-slashes, ending with one final blacked-out slash that tears open the camera and leaves a trail of white on the screen.

Apologetic Attacker: When fighting Rachel, he always compliments her when she kicks his ass, and apologizes profusely when he's the one doing the kicking.

Dastardly Whiplash: In Taokaka's joke ending in CS, he makes a cameo appearance as this. The moment he is revealed, his theme (which is not supposed to be known about yet) starts playing.

Downloadable Content: He is the 2nd DLC character to be announced, and has been released for Japanese Playstation 3 owners as of September 21, 2010, and American Playstation 3 owners as of September 28. He costs the same price as Makoto on PSN. (560 Microsoft points / $7.00)

Real Life Writes the Plot: He was delayed on the 360 for some time due to server issues with the Dashboard update, but the roadblock has been lifted and he will be available on December 7 for 360 users. As an apology to the 360 users for the delays, he was discounted for a full month at 320 MSP, returning to his original pricing on January 10, 2011.

Harmful Healing: To Jin. More precisely, he doesn't heal Jin but merely removes the pain and joint stiffness temporarily. As a side effect, after a few days, the pain will come back much worse than before. Gii notes that the method is very sadistic.

I Was Quite a Looker: During his prime he had spiked-up brown hair and kicked ass without the jacket portion of his suit. He even retained the beard.

Partial Transformation: Some of his moves have him partially transform his limbs into wolf form when he attacks.

Precision F-Strike: He speaks with class most of the time. But when the subject is about Terumi, he's not above using the term "Son of a bitch" for him.

Real Men Wear Pink: He wears a pink ribbon on his long hair. In his wolf form, the ribbon moves to the tail. Of course, it doesn't detracts from his badasstitude. Fandom believes it's courtesy of Rachel's whims.

Your Struggle Is Futile: What he says whenever he wins a round by a landslide (as in a near-perfect or at least above 50% life).

Short Run in Peru: See above. Contrary to popular belief, it was always Arc System Works' intention to release Valkenhayn a week late in North America on the PS3. The 360 version release was intended to be simultaneous, however, until the bug was found.

Not So Stoic: Against certain people who would slander Rachel if provoked enough.

Undying Loyalty: Despite being one of the six heroes (and thus a living legend in the world of Blaz Blue), he is extremely loyal to Rachel and never sees himself as anything more than her butler. Case in point, the moment he really lost his patience and attacked Terumi (in his ghost form) in Calamity Trigger? When Terumi called Rachel a "damn vampire".

A young girl who wields the Nox Nyctores Arma Reboare: Muchourin, which allows her to manifest matter. She has inherited the Nox from Trinity, a member of the Six Heroes, and has 3 different personalities: Luna, a bratty girl, Sena, a kind boy, and Trinity Glassfield, that of the missing sixth hero.

Her Drive, Magical Symphony, allows her to equip her staff for longer range attacks, as well as switch her fighting style between 6 different styles. Her Astral Finish fires a small but fullscreen laser at her opponent. If it connects, she enters a charge-up sequence and FIREZ HER LAZOR at the opponent in a similar manner to Nanoha's Starlight Breaker.

Dangerously-Short Skirt: An old-school ruffled-up one, whereas Noel has a minidress and Makoto has a miniskirt. Why she even wants to fight in one is a mystery that can only be explained by Irony (as listed below) or Refuge in Audacity.

Split Personality: She has three: Luna, a mean-spirited young girl, Sena, a kind boy and Trinity, the sixth hero. However, they're not really split personalities, more like three souls sharing the same body. All three are fully aware of one anothers existence and are awake/active at all times, though Trinity is usually sleeping.

Theme Naming: Her move names are taken from various Magical Girl Anime. They are also apparently French.

Dub Name Change: Her move names ended up changed to reflect Japanese culture rather than American culture. Dream Sally for example was changed to Lunar Lapidation in a nod to Sailor Moon, althrough this was reverted back in the English version of Continuum Shift II

Token Mini-Moe: Sena/Luna, at least. Trinity herself was quite a babe back in the day.

Carl's father. A gifted alchemist known far and wide as "The Puppeteer". He is the one who turned Ada, Carl's sister, into the Nox Nyctores Nirvana and also the mastermind behind the Murakumo units. After constructing Nirvana, Relius seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth...until the events of Continuum Shift, where it is revealed he's a Colonel in the NOL, and is actively working with Hazama to turn Noel into Mu. Relius has absolutely no regard for morality or life whatsoever, viewing people as nothing more than guinea pigs. So much so that he not only did he harvest his own daughter's body to make Nirvana, but he also turned his own wife, Ignis Clover, into a Nox Nyctores as well. Fluctus Redactum: Ignis, is a combat doll much like Nirvana, but with the ability to completely manipulate all forms of energy.

Confirmed as a new character for Continuum Shift Plus on Play Station Vita on July 27, 2011, and will be released in both Arcades and on Consoles December 17, 2011. His Drive, Detonator, allows him to summon Ignis similar to how Stands are summoned in the Jo Jos Bizarre AdventureFighting Game from Capcom. His Astral Finish involves Ignis grabbing the opponent and teleporting him and the opponent to an unknown room (implied to be one of his labs). The opponent is seen restrained with Relius sitting in a chair across from them. Then he gets up and walks over to begin "experimenting" on themin ways so grotesque that he snaps his fingers and the doors to the lab close so it can't be seen.

Ascended Extra: From a background character to a playable one, though looking at Carl's story in CT, it was going to happen.

Early-Bird Cameo: The intro of CSII had him battling against his son Carl. Note that said intro only included every other playable character of the game, including Makoto, Valkenhayn and Platinum. Kokonoe was also in the intro, but she's rather important to the story.

Chekhov MIA: In CT, Carl's story mentions that he's also looking for his father. Relius shows up in CS as an NPC, and crawls his way up to playable status.

Batman Gambit: Relius pulls a rather beautiful one in the Sector Seven side-story: Sector Seven, usually incompetent at retrieval missions, was able to steal Nirvana from the NOL, who would then attack Sector Seven to get her back, only to be attacked by the Black Beast Relius had created in the lowest lab of Sector Seven, and the result of the Beast's attack would fuse the souls needed to complete his latest Nox Nyctores- Ignis. All according to Relius's plan.

He's apparently fond of these kinds of plans. He isn't called "The Puppeteer" for nothing.

Big Bad Duumvirate: He and Terumi have been behind everything major that's happened in the story thus far.

Black Comedy: As stated below in the footnotes, Relius is nice enough to let Tsubaki have a final prayer before experimenting. This is fine and actually nice, consdiering the Fridge Logic behind it... then you notice she's facingawayfrom Relius...

Brilliant but Lazy: In The Wheel of Fortune, he holds off on saving Terumi from Hakumen while the former is losing their fight, stating he detests physical labor. He does eventually use Ignis to bail Terumi out, however. Coupled with this, Terumi/Hazama is almost always the one to do all the hands-on field work their plans involve, while Relius prefers to focus on his research, and will only intervene if he truly needs to (i.e. calling off Hazama when he gets sidetracked), or if it furthers his research (see Tager's bad ending).

Relius never joins Hazama in his fighting, and if his own fighting is to be viewed, he doesn't experiment on people unless they fight back. In fact, if you don't do your Astral Finish, a large percentage of the win poses will have Relius nonchalantly walking away.

Catch Phrase: Despite being such a genius, Relius is very fond of muttering "I have much to learn." Fitting, because he's always on a pursuit of perfection and always feels lacking in the knowledge he accumulated.

Char Clone: Further reinforced by his puppet; Ignis is bright red, and is stated to be far stronger than Carl's puppet Nirvana.

Cold-Blooded Torture: He does some of this to Tager in his bad ending to power Ignis, and orders some scientists to torture Lambda with electric shocks in her story mode.

For Science!: His motivation for pretty much everything he's done (contrasting Terumi's For the Evulz mindset). The entire reason he and Terumi partnered up in the first place was that Terumi piqued his scientific curiosity with his plan to destroy Amaterasu, meaning he is willing to kill God in the name of science.

Game Over Man: Unless you're playing Carl, Arakune, Valkenhayn or Platinum, pray your character gets an immediate evac. If you don't, bad shit goes down, even if you fight (sorry, Makoto).

Gone to the Future: He was thrown into the Cauldron during the Dark War, which sent him decades into the future. He lost his memories as a result, but regained them over a year and quickly resumed his scientific ambitions.

Guinea Pig Family: He has used his daughter and later, his wife, for twisted experiments.

Herr Doctor: Played with. Like Carl, his profile lists his birthplace as Austria, and he is known by some as "Dr. Relius". However, he doesn't have a stereotypical accent of any kind, let alone if he even is a doctor.

Then again, BlazBlue's well known for not caring who anyone's from before; it's just an excuse for people to know where the hell everything is.

Expanded upon in his story mode, where it is revealed that while he was working on Nirvana and Ignis, he saw the "true form" of every person, their soul, which is simply a ball of bluish light. This is how he came to view people as mere "things" rather than living beings. He claims that the Amaterasu unit continues to stifle his progress as a scientist.

Man Behind the Man: The creator of the Murakumo Units, and the one responsible for turning his daughter into Nirvana. He's even using the Imperator herself, and possibly the one personally responsible for turning her into what she is. Being Terumi's partner, he's also responsible for just about everything bad that's happened in the series' story.

Offing the Offspring: He tries this on Carl in CS's story mode, for no apparent reason. Thankfully, it doesn't work. Subverted in Darkness Visible, when he gives Carl a glimpse of his world view and the kid passes out.

The Sociopath: In what can only be considered the messed up logical conclusion of the inability to see a difference between "people" and "things", he unapologetically turned his daughter and wife into puppets.

Not So Stoic: He has hints of this in Carl's story mode when he goes on about Ignis.

Strapped to An Operating Table: His Astral intends to invoke him performing dastardly experiments on his defeated opponent, and the table, literal or figurative, vary from opponent to opponent, as seen here.[5]